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The pride, the absolute pure pride that when given the choice of what to do on a day out for her Birthday my daughter chose going to a heritage railway and riding on a heritage bus. She’s 5…what an absolute star.

Here are some lovely pictures of the day and Len and Lynda (the inlwas) came too and we had a picnic at the park. Why is there no photos of that I hear you gasp…try having a picnic in a park with a 5 year old and 1 1/2 year old and you’ll understand why.

The ball is a ball of 2ps made to look like the Death Star…random. It had a bike inside it…art.

When ever possible we try and visit “Aunty Olive”. I’m only doing speech marks around Aunty Olive as I’m sure there is a degree of separation from that title and Mairi (so she’s Mairi’s mum’s Aunty) but she’s awesome so we just say she’s Aunty and live with it.

Not much to say about this but the photos speak for themselves, my Nan is awesome and as a surprise the whole extended family on that side surprised her by appearing at her 80th.

It was a great weekend, the log cabin we stayed in was the envy of my parents (resulting in them booking it for a few months later).That Cabin is possibly the most calming place I’ve ever stayed (tie with a retreat place in Huddersfield)

Uncle Nick who normal lives in hotter climates (Thailand and Saudi) came over with his son (my cousin Simon) and his daughter Anabel (obvs my other cousin). I’ve seen Simon a few times through the years but Anabel must have been 7 or 8 last time I saw her.

Bobbie really enjoyed siting next to Nana, Amelie enjoyed having lots of food (common theme there). These images are of us at the cabin, Glastonbury Abbey (it’s huge) and then the meal – great weekend with a family that doesn’t often come together but when we do it’s like we have never been apart.

Some times the greatest treasures can be on your backdoor. Living in or around York you become numb to the history all around you. Bobbie has been around old things (Roman walls, ancient buildings, Victorian landscapes, me etc) for as long as she can remember and although some things fill her with wonder, history doesn’t quite do it for her and I suspect that’s because she lives in a city surrounded by Roman walls and enough history for a county let alone a city.

Be that as it may, the wife and I attempt to take our kids to historic places all over the UK. That means not forgetting to do so in our own city of York. Goddard’s House is the newly opened home of the famous Terry’s family of chocolate factory fame.

The bellow images are of our visit, they had games available to play on tables which was of great fun to Bobbie, Amelie and National Trust properties don’t get on just yet but she’s mellowing slowly.

Highlights picture wise

The Terry’s mixed drops with 1930s decor behind looks awesome

The fact that, not only did they make chocolate oranges…they made chocolate APPLES!

finally the Terry’s ash tray.

Anyway click below and enjoy…Sorry for the lack of activity on this blog. I’ll work my way through the back log now I’ve taken loads of pictures but had no editing time, I’ll catch up.

As a demonstration of my lack of time to write this blog here are the photos from illuminate York 2015 (taken October 2015). The main things I looked at where the light boxes at the Guildhall, NRM train lights and disco balls down the Shambles. Not much else to say about them but to click and take a look.

I do truly love Illuminate York it’s my favourite arts event York puts on and does separate it from other cities in the UK and indeed the world. Long may it continue.

Well it took me until now to collect all my welsh holiday photos for the next post, we went to a slate mine, bronze age mine, narrow gauge railway, visiting the amazing Mr B’s bistro in Llandudno, visiting various castles, visiting a tropical world come wildlife centre adventure playground and awesome pancakes.

The only place where walking round with a mug of coffee is the coolest thing in the world.

September 29th Bobbie put her shoes on her head and we set off for Squires cafe…

This strange place is located near Sherburn in Elmet and on this day they had a bike show. We met up with my parents and had a little day out in the summer sunshine (despite it being the back end of September). Because it was so sunny it didn’t make for the best light for taking photos but think I did alright.

All taken on my D3000 with a 18-55mm lens and edited in Raw format only.

The weather on this day was not brilliant but still warm and we went to Bowness and while there went to the Beatrix Potter Experience and then later to the AWESOME Wray Castle.

So in Bowness the Beatrix Potter Experience can be found, a fairly large building housing all sorts of scenes from Beatrix Potter’s books. This was better than it sounds really, it did include a working veg garden that then feeds the cafe downstairs (genius idea).

The funniest thing was the huge number of Chinese and Japanese tourists that were also in attendance, now we thought “oh we will get Bobbie a book, from the store..” £6 I think, but it was nicely presented and we will give it to her later. The Chinese tourists in front of us in the queue had their shop assistant reply “…ok that’s £116 please” £116 on Beatrix potter things!!!! Long live the Chinese economy!

Anyway moving on, we then visited the little known National Trust property Wray Castle, this was our find of the holiday. I feel I should first explain what exploring properties with a little child is like.

The child will want to run about, no matter how good the Property management, the little child will find something to grab, tug, pull, knock, ruin or otherwise destroy items. This becomes an issue when visiting properties that are preserved for the nation.

Now we were expecting the very same experience here, Bobbie would enjoy it for a bit but after 15-20 “No don’t touch that”‘s she will get annoyed and then it’s tears and paddy time. Wray Castle couldn’t be further from this experience.

From the off they said to us “just let her run free, just watch her on the stairs but she can’t do much damage” we were confused but went into the first room which had massive building blocks and we spent 30 minutes making towers and having so much fun. We then went around the rest of the castle with fun and toys in most of the other rooms. It was so refreshing to have an National Trust property with kids truly at it’s heart and I thank the NT for making it that way but also plead for them to market it more!

And thus ends the Holiday blogs… coming up, how to play the drums and what a difference a manager makes.